A few years ago, my grandmother gave me a brand-new sewing/embroidery machine. This machine can do almost anything, it’s pretty neat. Not being much of a sewer when I received the machine, I felt obliged to at least give it a try.
After a few hundred hours (and dollars) later, you can finally walk past my sewing room without hearing me scream profanities at my machine because of a silly mistake that cost me another run to the fabric store.
And it turns out I actually enjoy sewing, and I’m getting better all the time. If you are first starting out in this area, here is some advice I wish I had known when I first began embroidering:
- Understand that it will take time to feel confident.
- Practice, practice, practice! Start with small scraps of extra fabric to get a feel for what backing works best with each type of fabric. I know you all have a boneyard of fabric scraps in the corner of your sewing room.
- On that same note, you should welcome the chance to embroider for your friends when they ask because you could really use the practice.
- But keep this in mind – if you are going to do a favor for a friend, be sure you embroider only on items you can afford to replace! I have quite a few fleece blankets, towels, and handkerchiefs with other people’s misspelled, misshapen initials on them.
- Always have an extra stabilizer handy. And it is not a bad idea to invest in a few different types as well. Different fabric often requires different backing.
- You don’t need to spend extra money on special gadgets. Start out with just what you need – hoops, fabric, embroidery needles, thread, and of course your stabilizer. Once you start working your way up to bigger, more experienced projects, then you can start to experiment with fun new accessories.
- Stay organized. Take notes to help you remember what techniques worked and didn’t work for your embroidery style. I like to keep a journal on my sewing table where I can quickly jot down measurements, notes, and ideas to try for next time. Also, having a clean workspace helped to keep me relaxed and made it much easier to find what I was looking for in a hurry.
- There are many blogs, guides, and tips on the internet about embroidering. Do your research before starting a project. You can find some really fun and beautiful projects out there.
- Most importantly – Have Fun! The possibilities are endless with what you can do.
For more on embroidery backing and stabilizer, keep an eye our for our upcoming post!